by Hal Emerson
“It’s snowed in!” Raven called back. “There’s no chance of going in or coming out that way! Why would he go there? He’s a trickster, he must have hidden here or … or something!”
And then a look of surprise and fear dawned in Leah’s eyes that quickly hardened once more to anger.
“The shadow-cursed bastard found another way!” She roared; she spun and spurred her horse down the second road, leaving Raven to follow, his whole body tensed with the need for caution – the Fox was dangerous and they were following too fast, too easily.
The second road twisted and turned, leading through paths that had long gone unused, ducking them under trees and over frozen rivers – leading deeper into the side of the mountain, leading eventually to –
A cave.
The mouth of it was small, overgrown with trees and vegetation, easy to miss in the day and nearly impossible to see in the night.
He shouted to Leah, trying to tell her to wait, but she charged forward, plunging into the cave, not willing to waste time on conversation.
Raven reached out again and felt the life of his brother somewhere ahead of them – this was the way he’d gone. He’d taken this tunnel, this secret passage that must lead to the other side of the Roarke Mountains. He took a deep breath and plunged into the cave after Leah.
He turned a corner and saw, to his surprise, that the interior was lit with torches, blazing bright in the cave where the snow and rain couldn’t reach them.
Tiffenal was welcoming them.
Leah jumped off her horse, pushing herself up and over the creature’s neck, the tunnel now too tight to ride in. Raven cursed and followed her; his rage was still with him, but he’d had too much experience with Tiffenal to give it free range.
They shot forward through the tunnel, Leah running at full breakneck speed, Raven easily keeping pace, not knowing what else to do but stay with her. He was reaching through the Talisman, expanding his mind as far as it would go, feeling for every possible detail, listening, smelling, feeling the air around them, waiting for the traps he knew would come.
They turned the next bend in the tunnel and all of the torches went out, leaving them in pure, midnight darkness.
“Damn!”
“Shhh!” Raven said, straining his ears for any hint of sound that would tell them what was coming next. But nothing came; there was no sound at all besides their labored breathing. The silence was oppressive, pushing in on them like a physical force. Raven felt the weight of the mountain above him, hundreds of thousands of tons of rock and ice pressing down on this tunnel, down on him, and his breath began to catch in his chest. His mind flashed back to the time he’d spent in the dark, dank cell below Banelyn, chained to a wall inside the Seeker’s lair, unable to move, waiting for death; it was all he could do to keep the memories from overwhelming him.
But then inspiration struck; he reached down and pulled off his gloves, tugging at the laces tied around his wrists, pushing and pulling and wriggling his hands out of them, frantic, almost hysterical. Finally, they were off, and he held up his hands.
The sleeves of his long black shirt fell back, showing the red glow of his veins, the power of the Ox Talisman flowing through him. He felt his breath come easier now – yes, the mountain was still above them, yes they were still trapped underground, but at least he could see. Holding his arms up high in the air, a dim red glow illuminated the tunnel around them, falling on Leah, who was staring down the tunnel with wide eyes, looking for anyone or anything that might have tried to sneak up on them in the dark.
But the tunnel was just as they’d seen it before the torches had died. No monster had come slinking out of the darkness to attack them, no trap –
A loud clang sounded from above, and by the light of Raven’s glowing veins they saw a patch of the stone roof fall away, revealing above it a faint, dim outline of something … something falling straight toward them.
Without a second thought Raven grabbed Leah in his arms, and ran with every ounce of his strength down the tunnel. The world crashed in around them as the tunnel crumbled and soon they were coughing and choking. Rocks hit him in the back, boulders that should have crushed him but for the strength of the Ox Talisman. Heavy dust coated the air, so thick it pressed against their eyes and ears like a heavy pillow, leaving them completely deprived of their senses. It was exactly like being buried alive, and Raven only barely managed to hang on to his sanity as his mind quaked with fear. Another rock hit him, and this time he was thrown forward, baring both of them to the ground.
After an eternity, the shaking subsided, and they came slowly to their feet, both trembling, looking around them by the light of the red glow; they saw then through the clouds of settling dust that the tunnel behind them had completely collapsed. If he had been one second slower to react they would have died. As it was … now there was no way back.
“Let’s go,” Leah said, pushing him ahead of her so he could light the way.
They moved forward quickly, though with less haste now that they had seen the true dangers of following the Fox on a path prepared by his own hateful hands. Raven felt the thin, tendrilic fingers of fear playing on the nape of his neck, crawling down the back of his spine. A foe lurked around every corner, every rock was a trap ready to be sprung, every shifting shadow the Fox lunging from concealment.
They continued on for far too long, in the dark with only the light of Raven’s glowing veins. Now that the first trap was well passed, Leah was once again jogging, nearing a flat-out run, and it was all Raven could do to keep up with her without falling on his face over an unseen dip in the ground.
But he could feel Tiffenal before them, could feel that they were gaining on him, narrowing the gap, and so he made no comment; he wanted revenge almost as much as she did, and he’d be damned if he let his brother slip away unscathed.
They began to pass strange things – huge mushrooms, patches of glowing algae, creatures with empty eye sockets that scurried away from the light. They found pieces of wood in the walls, petrified and hard as the rocks from which they protruded.
Something skittered away across the floor in the dark, and they both turned but saw nothing. Hearts pounding in their throats, they continued on, hugging the center of the path.
They turned another bend and saw before them the remains of what had once been an enormous house. How it had ended up here, Raven could not even guess, but it filled the tunnel from floor to ceiling. Without stopping, Leah ran forward and kicked in the door, which explode under her boot into a million particles of dust. They passed through the house, full of nothing but mounds of dirt and a bed of moss and fungus, and came out the other side to find themselves on the edge of a deep, underground lake. The other side was hidden in shadows, and the water looked black and ominous.
“Where is he?” Leah asked, voice flat and monotone.
“Across somewhere,” Raven said.
Without waiting, Leah stepped forward – and hit the trip wire.
They stood frozen for a moment, both looking down at the gossamer strand of thread that spanned the door, and then they heard something behind them, something falling in the upper levels of the house, followed by the smell of smoke.
Flames burst into life all around them, and without time to think, they ran from the raging inferno behind them straight into the underground lake ahead.
As they crashed into the water, Raven felt every inch of his skin seize up and bunch into little balls – the cold was so intense that it was like a physical force, as if someone had simultaneously slapped and compressed every part of his body. He could barely breath – the blood that rushed to his head made the world spin – he resurfaced, gasping violently, and turned to look behind him. He was just in time to see the fire rush through the door.
The form of the Exile girl rose in front of him, unaware of what was happening.
“LEAH!”
He took an inhuman leap forward, drawing deeply on the Ox, and reached her just in
time to carry them both into the depths.
The cold was so mind-numbing that for a moment he lost all recollection of who and where he was. He felt Leah struggling against him, her slender body twisting and turning, not realizing that he’d pulled her under the water to save her.
He looked up, his eyes burning, barely able to focus, and saw the huge gout of flame go roaring past, lighting up the underwater world in which they had taken refuge, showing swirling weed-like plants and fish darting off, scared by the suddenly light.
He couldn’t hold his breath much longer, and Leah’s struggles were becoming weaker. The cold was creeping into his brain, making him gasp and gag even through his closed mouth – his lungs were on fire, his stomach caving in on itself, trying to force any last bit of breath out of his lungs and into his body – and then the fire was gone.
He kicked for the surface, pulling and dragging Leah along behind him. They burst out of the water, sputtering and shaking. Leah hadn’t been able to take a full breath before Raven had dragged her under, and as they staggered back she began to hack and vomit water.
They made it to the rocky shore, gasping and shivering, coming to rest next to the door. The house was still, remarkably, intact, and Raven supposed briefly it was because the wood had turned to stone long ago. The fire had been a Bloodmagic trap – Tiffenal had brought Mages with him, at least initially.
He turned to Leah and saw that she had caught her breath and was staring out across the lake, eyes flickering back and forth, scanning for danger.
“He wants us to follow him,” Raven said through chattering teeth.
“Then let’s oblige,” Leah growled. She strode forward, took a few quick, fortifying breaths, then dove forward into the waters of the lake and began to swim with powerful strokes toward what Raven hoped was a distant shore.
He hesitated a brief second before following. Maybe it was the cold water that had finally brought him back to his senses, or maybe this whole time he’d slowly been realizing that something was wrong. But some sixth sense, some part of him that knew his brother just a little too well, was telling him that anywhere the Fox wanted them to go was not a place that they wanted to be.
The water grew even colder as they continued on, and soon they began to see ice floating around them. Leah swam forward, powering through it, driven by rage, and Raven followed using the strength of Tomaz and the Ox Talisman to keep up with her Spellblade-enhanced strokes.
How much longer will it last?
And then the other shore was in sight. Wearily, they pulled themselves the rest of the way forward and climbed up onto the stony shore next to a small boat that bobbed nearby. A cold wind was rushing in over them, though thin and distant, coming from the tunnel ahead.
Are we all the way through to the other side?
Leah must have had the same thought – she ran forward, ignoring the cold, and blindly turned the corner ahead. Raven cursed and followed, and they found themselves at the exit to the long tunnel, lit with more flaming torches.
He’s congratulating us for getting this far.
They rounded the last corner and found themselves looking out into the heart of a blizzard. The storm had built since they had entered the tunnel, and it was absolutely savage now.
“Which way did he go?” Leah cried over the howling wind.
“That way!” Raven pointed, into the blizzard.
They strode forward – and then a dagger flew through the dark and cut a line of fire across Raven’s cheek.
“ARGH!” He cried out in both fear and pain, and stumbled backward. He dropped to one knee and Leah rolled, taking cover.
A shape flew over them, and then two short, thin swords, glowing gold in the light of the flickering tunnel torches, lanced out at him.
Raven rolled to the side, desperate, only just evading the strike, and then he heard an insane laugh fill the air, and knew it was his brother. Leah raced forward and raked her daggers toward Tiffenal, but she was too late and the Fox had already dodged away. She cursed and spun after him. He laughed and jumped back, just out of her reach.
Leah lunged again and caught the Fox’s cloak with her dagger, but as she did Tiffenal spun, and the luck of his Talisman kicked in; Leah took one step in the wrong direction and Tiffenal’s elbow crashed into her chest. All of the air rushed out of her lungs and she crumpled to her knees, gasping and heaving. Tiffenal laughed, a high and howling keen, and skewered a sword through her side.
“NO!”
Tiffenal ignored him, and ripped a claw-like hand up the front of her black Midwinter dress, tearing the fabric and scrapping away skin before connecting with her jaw and knocking back her head in a wicked jerk. She fell to the snow-covered ground and didn’t move.
Raven ran forward, seeing his brother through a red haze of hatred; but just as he took the first step, his borrowed strength left him. His legs turned to jelly, falling out from under him and depositing him in the deep snow. Fatigue rolled over him; his body was exhausted, tired beyond belief, and he was unable to do anything but breathe, and even that was like trying to move a mountain with his bare hands.
He watched, helpless, as the Fox moved through the falling snow to a horse tied to the entrance to the cave. He realized that the world was somehow brighter – and even with the light and strength of Tomaz’s Talisman gone, he could still see through the flurries of windblown snow … how was that possible?
And then the Fox, riding his horse, came up to him and thrust an arm out, down the mountain, like a conjurer at the end of his act. Raven turned to look where he was pointing, and saw a holocaust before him.
Roarke was burning.
The entire castle and the whole outer ring of buildings were engulfed in flame; it burned furiously, the noise of it so loud it reached them even here on the distant mountainside.
“There is nothing you can take that we cannot take back!” Tiffenal called out over the noise of the inferno and the storm. “There is no move you can make in this game that we can not turn to our advantage. Give up now brother! Your side will lose. Your side must lose!”
He held up the dagger, the sambolin, he’d taken from Elder Goldwyn, shining its strange opal light even in the gray-orange world of snow and fire. He turned and spurred his horse down the mountainside, tucking the dagger away in a bag at his side.
Raven, his hands and feet freezing in the snow, with no strength left in his body, and no hope left in his heart, could only stare at the distant flames, lost in the inevitability of what he’d always known was coming.
Chapter Sixteen: Survivors of Roarke
Leah moved, and something rekindled in his battered chest. Bleeding and nearly frozen to death, he crawled toward her, pulled her close, and held her, trying to share his body heat. He pulled her to her feet, ripping off part of his cloak and binding her side, not taking the time to look at the wound, knowing there was nothing he could do now but stop the bleeding as best he could. She was able to stand, though she still clung to him for support.
They began to make their way down the mountain, one grueling step at a time, headed toward the distant glow of the city of Roarke. It would be their only place of refuge – they couldn’t retreat to the cave, where they would freeze to death, if not fall victim to another one of Tiffenal’s traps. No, their only chance was to find people who’d made it out of the fire.
If anyone had.
Soon, Raven could barely feel his feet, and his toes had long since gone numb; for all he knew they were just frostbitten stumps by now. His fingers weren’t responding when he tried to open and close them – they were locked in place around Leah’s shivering body.
“Why didn’t you keep f-f-f-following him?” Leah whispered in his ear as she clung to him, stumbling along with him as best she could. He wondered how bad her wound was – how deep had the blade gone?
“I didn’t have the strength,” Raven said. “The connection to the Ox Talisman broke.”
“How?”
“I’m not sure,” Raven gasped back. “The only thing I can think of is that distance might affect the transfer. I just hope Tomaz is all right…”
“He is,” she said vehemently. “He’s fine.”
Raven looked into her face and saw that she was battling with herself, fighting to keep control, to keep the grief that had settled in her heart like a leaden weight from creeping into her mind and clouding her focus. He took a deep breath and did the same thing inside himself, pushing down his emotions, putting them out of the way.
They doubled their pace down the mountain, nearly breaking their necks more times than they cared to count, goading each other on, pulling each other forward, until finally they found the road – the road that led from the Pass to Roarke. It eased their passage, though they were still moving far too slow.